Jubilant Community

The Weekly Photo Challenge theme this week is “Jubilant“. I’m sharing the abundant flowering of a clematis I bought three years ago at WalMart. In its first year it had less than five blooms.

Thinking it wasn’t feeling too much at home here, I nestled it among good things; roses, lilies, shrubs. I gave it the proper light and good old-fashioned fertilizer. And I remained … waiting.

In gardening of any kind there is so much waiting!

In its second summer it was just a scraggly green bush. Cute. But so shy! And so I waited another year.

And it finally opened up!

And blossomed unimaginable!

No more shyness. No more hesitation.

In fact, as the quote says, it is a perpetual astonishment. We are nearing June and it’s full of buds.

The vine is branching out beyond. But it’s still connected to home. Through the wind and rain it’s held tight.

It’s all become its own little community. The vine gently weaves a pattern with the flowers. Together they reside. Yet the tender flowers are never destroyed. Nor is the vine ever suffocated by the broad, expansive flower.

Look how they cling to each other as good friends. Neighbors. Caring for, looking out for each other. And the seed pods are so abundant that next year I’ll need to add another trellis. This community is growing! Good neighbors do that.

Good neighbors promote growth. And speaking of neighbors …

What ever happened to being a good neighbor? Watching out for, protecting, sharing, loving, being kind?

Different, but dwelling together?

Whatever happened to “community”? Real community. Real people rubbing shoulders with real people. In the earlier photo, the clematis is neighbors with the lilies, roses, and shrubs. All different. But look how beautiful together.

Today there are all these “online communities” and believe me, I’m all for them.

But sometimes I wonder if we’ve forgotten how to be with real people. We sit in our temperature-controlled environment and pluck away on the keyboard or our smartphones and call it community.

And another thing I see as I scroll through social media is how easily it is to be unkind. Words filled with so much venom. I wonder would they be that way if they were face-to-face?

Somehow, I think not.

There’s an abundance of words and opinions nowadays. And I am definitely a free-speech warrior. But imagine the human—the actual real live person. Think about your words before you type. And work toward a jubilant display such as this. Nurturing beyond just existence. Nurturing to grow.

Hi Amy. My blog is going through a transition since I’ve changed from.org to .live and it seems there are several glitches that happen when you do that. I don’t recommend it, that’s for sure. WordPress is being very helpful. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find my post? Your information will help me figure out what’s going on and what the current status is. So nice to see you again!

The mission statement and eight of the categories, with only slight alteration of the wording, are the original work of Stephen Deal, taken from his Senior Convocation speech "Things We Want You to Remember".
The "My Thoughts" category under the name of "Steve", are his original work as well.
Excerpts and links may be used but kindly ask permission. Then give credit where credit is due. Thank you!
Alexandria thanks Stephen Deal for his contribution as a guest author on this blog.